Parent Stress Reduction and Early Childhood Obesity: Yale Trial Report

A Yale randomized trial involved a parent-focused mindfulness and stress-management program integrated with nutrition and physical-activity counseling, compared with nutrition and activity counseling alone, in families of children ages 2–5.

The study enrolled 114 parents of children aged 2–5 with overweight or obesity. Both arms attended weekly group meetings lasting up to two hours. One group received Parenting Mindfully for Health (PMH), described as mindfulness and behavioral self-regulation skills delivered in combination with healthy nutrition and physical-activity counseling; the comparison group received healthy nutrition and physical-activity counseling alone.

Investigators reported reductions in parent stress in the PMH arm along with improvements in positive parenting behaviors, and they also described reduced unhealthy food intake among children in the PMH group. At three months after treatment, children in the PMH group had no significant weight gain, whereas children in the counseling-only group showed significant weight increases and a six-fold higher risk of moving into the overweight/obesity weight risk group by the 3-month follow up.